Contents

Gameplay

The gameplay consists of a single game type, single- or
multi-player, in which the player fights through waves of
zombie-like monsters (or more precisely, specimens from a failed
military experiment), with each wave becoming successively more
difficult, moving through each area of the level, until it
concludes with a battle with a super-specimen, called the
Patriarch.[3]
Alex Quick, the level designer and texture artist, has stated that
"there are a whole bunch of ideas on the drawing board that we can
add in after launch, including the 'Story' mode from the mod, for
instance."[4]

Levels are completely non-linear and open-ended. There are no
restrictions on where players can travel—that is, players can
choose where to run and fight. Up to six players can team up in an
online cooperative battle with the
specimens. The game sessions are fully-configurable, so players can
change the difficulty, number of enemy waves, or specify which
creatures compose the waves. As the player progress through waves,
the tougher-grade specimens are more commonly encountered. A Software Development Kit (SDK) and level
editor are included to aid in the creation of modifications and
levels.

There is an array of weapons, including melee weapons, shotguns,
rifles, sidearms and other weapons. Players must earn cash from
killing specimens to buy these from the Trader who sells
weapons, supplies, and ammo players will need to progress through
each wave, who is only accessible after completing a wave. When the
next wave begins, she relocates, and near the completion of a wave,
a red arrow appears on screen, directing the players to the
Trader's new location. Players can also drop cash for
other players to collect and spend.

A feature called "ZEDtime" allows the player to see particularly
gory kills, such as headshots, in slow-motion, even in multiplayer
mode. It can also give the players an advantage for a brief time to
carefully aim their shots.

Tactical gameplay elements exist, such as the ability to weld
doors shut to direct the flow of the enemy hordes, and the gameplay
encourages teamwork by giving less of an energy penalty when
players heal each other, instead of themselves.

There is voice chat, and automatic, randomized voice responses
from character interaction and selectable voice commands, similar
to Valve's Team Fortress
2 and Left
4 Dead, for communicating with other players. Another
similarity is the randomized music played during setup and combat
stages each level. In setup, the music is generally ambient and
quiet. In combat, it is louder, faster-paced heavy metal.

There is a "Perks" system, which gives the player certain
strengths and/or abilities. Players have seven to choose from.
These can be leveled up as they are used, improving their
effectiveness. For example, the Commando perk gives the player a
discount on automatic weapons, improved effectiveness with
automatic weapons, faster reloading with all weapons, and grants
detection of cloaked specimens in a radius around him.

Story

The game takes place in London, England. Horzine Biotech, a biotechnology
company, is contracted to conduct experiments of a military nature
involving mass cloning and
genetic manipulation. Something goes
horribly wrong during the process of the experimentations, and
human subjects begin to exhibit grotesque mutations and
disfigurement. They become increasingly hostile, and eventually
overrun the internal security forces of the corporation.

Hours later, the first waves of the specimens break out onto the
surface, disrupting a peace protest outside the well-known military contractor. Despite the best
efforts of local police, the civilians are quickly overwhelmed and
consumed by the seemingly endless supply of clones now streaming
from the gaping maw of Horzine Biotech's headquarter. Having
escaped their sterile prison, the creatures began to fan out to
neighboring areas, devouring the helpless citizens of London while
the Metropolitan Police bravely but fruitlessly attempt to stem the
tide of mutated flesh now spreading across their city.

Desperate to contain the outbreak, the British government begins
to organize ragtag teams of surviving British Army soldiers and Special Branch
police officers to fight back against the hordes of mutated
"specimens" now running amok throughout the capital and its
outskirts. The player takes the role of an anonymous member of one
of these teams as they partake in a variety of missions in and
around the city of London.

Killing Floor was originally a total
conversion mod for the game Unreal Tournament 2004,
first released in 2005. The lead developer Alex Quick was first
approached by Tripwire Interactive about porting
Killing Floor to their game Red Orchestra: Ostfront
41-45, but Quick did not follow through. A few years later,
when their user base started to dwindle, Quick contacted Tripwire
again to negotiate the port to Red Orchestra, and its
distribution via Steam—similar to what Tripwire
had already done with another Red Orchestra mod Mare Nostrum—and
then later, the retail game.[4]
The mod version had its fifth and final official update in July
2008.

The full retail version was announced in March 2009. With the
assistance of the original mod team, Tripwire would be the new
developer.[5]

Killing Floor was released on 14 May 2009.

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Downloadable content

Tripwire Interactive has to date released two major content
packs free of charge, "Heavy Metal" and "Level Up", which add new
weaponry, levels, and other content. Also available are two
character packs, Outbreak and Nightfall, which add four new player
avatars each.

Reception

Killing Floor was the top-selling game on Steam shortly
after it was released (as of May 19, 2009).[11]

EuroGamer commented that "though not
perfect", it was "clever and relatively cheap".[8]GameSpot commented that
the game graphics compared poorly with contemporary shooters, and
that the voice acting was bad, but considered that the sound
effects were very good, and that despite its flaws, "you can't help
but enjoy it."[9]
Some reviewers also considered that the lack of any real plot or
aim for the players other than killing specimens, the small number
of existing maps, and the repetitiveness of the gameplay reduced
its replay value.[12][13][14]

^ ab"Killing Floor Review". GameSpot. May 26, 2009. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/killingfloor/review.html.
"Visually, Killing Floor compares poorly with contemporary
shooters, thanks to its five-year-old engine(...)The sound effects
are outstanding, especially for guns, and you can often use subtle
sound clues to detect incoming enemies. Unfortunately, the voice
acting and soundtrack don't achieve the same level of
quality(...)Meanwhile, derivative, generic metal music does little
to improve the tone(...)It's absurd and crass, and yet you can't
help but enjoy it"